E-Mail Disclaimers

JaredBusch

I put this in the WC section, mainly because it's more a discussion about this than an IT thing.

How many of you use disclaimers on the bottom of your e-mails? You know, the old fashion, this is confidential, please destroy if you weren't supposed to see it, blah, blah, blah.

To me it seems like a waste, because
a) who knows if that would even protect you and
b) the damage has already been done

We talked about this once before a year or two ago. I believe the conclusion was they are legally useless.

Deleted74295

I have no disclaimer. I have a signature which says who I am, who the company is (legally registered bla bla) but that's it.

They are legally useless.

Kelly

There is some question about the enforceability of a unilateral contract: http://www.economist.com/node/18529895, just making them effectively useless.

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

How many of you use disclaimers on the bottom of your e-mails? You know, the old fashion, this is confidential, please destroy if you weren't supposed to see it, blah, blah, blah.

I definitely do not. They are embarrassing, offensive and pointless. They are like a bullying tactic with no teeth. They make the bully look mean, while being laughed at for being impotent.

scottalanmiller

@Kelly said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

There is some question about the enforceability of a unilateral contract: http://www.economist.com/node/18529895, just making them effectively useless.

I had no idea that there was a question around it. My understanding is that there is no question and they have zero value (outside of the any thread that one could make.)

scottalanmiller

Here, let's see if they work. Anyone reading this site owes me $100.

Do you think you all owe me $100? Same with the email.

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

To me it seems like a waste, because
a) who knows if that would even protect you and
b) the damage has already been done

I honestly believe that they are worse than that because...

a. Everyone knows that they are meaningless.
b. It flags your company as not having competent legal counsel and a good target to sue, bully, extort, etc.
c. It makes you aggressive and mean spirited... trying to force anonymous people to whom you might have sent an email too do your will. It's not their responsibility to do your job, stating this isn't just an attempt to intimidate, it can make people upset with you.
d. It's blatantly unprofessional.
e. It might be used against you in court - not sure how, but it feels like it could be used to show a lack of care or an intent to avoid due diligence.

Kelly

@scottalanmiller said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

@Kelly said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

There is some question about the enforceability of a unilateral contract: http://www.economist.com/node/18529895, just making them effectively useless.

I had no idea that there was a question around it. My understanding is that there is no question and they have zero value (outside of the any thread that one could make.)

http://www.rhlaw.com/blog/legal-effect-of-boilerplate-email-disclaimers/

The scope is very limited, but there have been occasions that they have legal standing.

Deleted74295

@scottalanmiller said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

Here, let's see if they work. Anyone reading this site owes me $100.

Do you think you all owe me $100? Same with the email.

Send me an email. I'll reply to it with my template disclaimer at the bottom that says I now own your house.

momurda

Some industries require them due to law; ie financial firms you need to put in some sort of disclaimer at the bottom of every email. Gets quite annoying when reading a long email chain, with ten nested disclaimers.

thwr

Those disclaimers aren't even worth the bandwith and storage they are taking. Simple as that. Uhm, heavy google translation now:

There's some irony behind it: Most disclaimer state that the information given is not "legally binding". But if so, what about the disclaimer? German courts stated multiple times that in this case, the disclaimer itself is also not binding.

For anyone who is capable of reading German or maybe Google Translate:

So why use it anyway?

wirestyle22

It scares my users into not doing suspicious things. That's about it. I work at a weird company though

scottalanmiller

@Kelly said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

@scottalanmiller said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

@Kelly said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

There is some question about the enforceability of a unilateral contract: http://www.economist.com/node/18529895, just making them effectively useless.

I had no idea that there was a question around it. My understanding is that there is no question and they have zero value (outside of the any thread that one could make.)

http://www.rhlaw.com/blog/legal-effect-of-boilerplate-email-disclaimers/

The scope is very limited, but there have been occasions that they have legal standing.

The only scope in which they work is not related to the topic above, however. Having a disclaimer that says that the email is not a contract or whatever, yeah that works. Having one that tells people that they have to do something does not. Plus, even if the disclaimer says that it is private.. it was sent directly to that one recipient. So it IS private.. .with them and they have the right to share it as broadly as they want from there as the data is now theirs.

scottalanmiller

@momurda said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

Some industries require them due to law; ie financial firms you need to put in some sort of disclaimer at the bottom of every email. Gets quite annoying when reading a long email chain, with ten nested disclaimers.

But not this kind of disclaimer. There is no law that says you have to include a false disclaimer.